July 20 2016: Homepack!

We had two good tides today and it's time for homepack. We decided to pull out 20 off the morning tide - just to get an idea of how long it would take us... and allow us to get some sleep before the next tide. So the Ambi crew pulled out 20... plus a few others we just couldn't resist. And the New Kid crew did the same. So we ended up with something like 50 fish to process. Yikes!

When we arrived at AGS to use the processing facilities they set up for their fishermen (thank you!), we found that the Williams family were also working on their homepack. Lucky for us, they are fast! We didn't want to waste time, so we put the fish in slush ice and Inku and I pulled out the big cutting board that sometimes lives in the back of the truck, and went to work right on the tailgate. Matt and Sarah set up our (very heavy!) commercial vacuum sealer in the fiberglass shop, one of the few places that it won't blow the breaker, and we developed a system.

We are getting faster and faster and the fillets are beautiful. It took us a total of 3-4 hours to process that original 40-50, from set up and icing, to filleting, to vacuum sealing, to freezing, and clean up. Inku and I did the filleting that first day, but Matt joined the fillet line eventually.

When we accumulated a pile, Matt would take them to the fiberglass shop. He and Sarah Y developed a system of sealing really effectively and quickly, and then distributing them around the freezer so that they would freeze more quickly. Sarah volunteered to stay and guard the fillets. They are so beautiful and so nicely sealed, we had reason to worry that they might leave the freezer without us. In fact, it turned out to be a really good move to have Sarah stay. A captain came into the freezer and was unable to find his homepack. He proceeded to throw a fit, eventually suggesting that Sarah had helped herself to his fish. She stood right up to him and he backed down.

Brad H was our beloved Gehl driver for many years, and we hope that he will be returning soon. He is a middle school teacher and coach during his off season. One year he mentioned a John Wooden quote, "Sports don't build character. They reveal it." Brad linked this observation to fishing. "I don't know if fishing builds character; but it sure reveals it." That has stuck with me. I think of it when I hear of captains losing their cool over their 30 pilfered homepack fish (something I definitely agree is frustrating and feels worse than you would expect it to - I know; it has happened to me), and when I see my crew perform. This is a very stressful environment. We do hard physical work most days, sometimes for most hours of most days. We have little control over much of it. We become exhausted. We make mistakes. We aren't always able to eat all we need. Something new breaks at least once a week. And we all stink. We don't know if we're making money and at least I constantly second-guess myself about whether I chose the right mesh size. Add a spark to that pile of tinder and see what happens. That is character revealed.

Here are Inku (foreground), Matt (mid field), and me in the filleting conex. I hope anyone who is lucky enough to get to eat some of this salmon will appreciate the effort and loving care with which it was removed from the net, brought to the filleting station, kept in slush ice, filleted, vacuum sealed, frozen and guarded, packed up, and flown to its destination. I don't think we ever lose track of our appreciation of the role we get to have in bringing these beautiful salmon to the plates of our friends and family.